However... though I think Hangouts On Air for education could work well for sessions you want to be completely open - webinars are a prime example... wherever you want your students to engage and discuss things in an honest, open - and sometimes vulnerable way... I'm not sure that the recording / streaming of a Hangout On Air outweighs the potential barrier that lack of privacy while the hangout is live would present.

Equally, it's also worth thinking about your institutional policy on the openness of your teaching? Does your institution allow you to broadcast to the rest of the world? That's going to impact on this too... and is important to bear in mind!

Here are a few of the 'early days' pros and cons... am happy to be corrected / have others add things to this list. It'll be interesting to see Hangouts On Air develop as a product and to see what Google prioritise...

Pros:

Easy to use

Free

Readily available if you have Google Apps enabled for the campus

Can stream live to YouTube and reach a global audience

Can invite specific people to take part live - but have to do this ahead of going 'On Air'

Can share apps within the hangout (as with normal hangouts)

Recording made of the hangout which can be downloaded from YouTube

Can control visibility of YouTube video after the event

Can embed video within an institutional VLE

Can create screencasts using a Google+ Hangout On Air - you don't need an audience to hang out

Can edit the recording using YouTube's video editor - including annotation, closed captioning

Can take advantage of Creative Commons licensing within YouTube for the resulting video

Cons:

Copyright notice / participation agreement
on entering a Hangout On Air

Cannot limit the audience on YouTube when streaming - it's either public or public

There are extensions on Chrome which will allow people to 'find' your Hangout On Air easily too - and which further publicises your hangout and diminishes any privacy

Cannot share resources for which you don't have permission / have the copyright

Difficult to moderate comments on YouTube whilst running the session

Because when it's live on YouTube it's public, random strangers can comment on your Hangout On Air

Learners might be put off participating because of the public nature of the Hangout

You can't kick someone out of a Hangout - only block them

If the URL of the Hangout On Air is shared then anyone with the URL can join even if they weren't invited

I think that Google+ Hangouts which you can limit to very specific groups - circles and individuals (or even an institution) will be a more comfortable informal learning environment for now... unless Google allow a finer control of the live audience for Google+ Hangouts On Air. The advantage of built in recording and integration with Google Apps sites really makes Hangouts On Air a very attractive teaching tool... but since part of learning is about admitting what you don't know and experiencing failure - I think that having a 'safe' environment in which that can take place is vital. Google+ Hangouts On Air aren't that space at present while Google+ Hangouts can be.

It takes a brave person to learn in public. It takes an *extremely* brave person to learn in front of a potentially global audience!

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About Me

I work at the University of Derby as the Learning Designer in the Innovation Hub. Was previously the Learning Technologies Manager at the University of Sheffield; have worked for the Open University as an Associate Lecturer / Consultant; and also as Senior eLearning Developer at Nottingham Trent University. I'm on the development group for CMALT (for the Association for Learning Technology) and the Academic Support Group for UCISA. I also chair the East Midlands Learning Technologists' Group. I'm interested in the impact of technology on learning and everyday life... and curious about most stuff! I've been taking a photo a day for the past couple of years and have loved photography for far longer than that. This is my personal Google account.